Native and Invasive Species

[Lightspine]

So this is a tidbit that I haven't seen discussed yet. We've known they exist on other planets, but this is confirmation that they're not Roshar natives:

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“I am like you,” Nikli said. “Your body is made up of tiny individual pieces called cells. My body is made up of pieces as well.”

“Cremlings,” she said.

“As I and my kind are not native to this planet, we prefer the term ‘hordelings.’ ”

At the same time, we learned something new about their biology; the really big centipede-like hordlings that Lopen fights have violet blood. In addition, hordlings are often distinguishable from cremlings by an external violet coloring. The first time we ever saw one was that purple "cremling" that Kaladin noticed while he was enslaved.

Here's the quotes:

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Huio slammed it with all his might against the monster’s arm, and the carapace cracked and split, spraying violet goo across the stones.

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Rysn’s eyes flicked to a purple hordeling hiding on the wall, near where it met the ceiling, shadowed.

Who else has violet carapace? Chiri-chiri:

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Chiri-Chiri had grown to roughly a foot long from her snout to the base of her tail—which extended an- other fifteen inches. She was big enough that Rysn needed two hands to carry her. The larkin cut an impressive profile, with her pointed mandibles and predator’s eyes. But these days, her normally brown- violet shell had whitened to an almost chalky color. Too white—this wasn’t a simple molt. Something was wrong.

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Chiri-Chiri looked much better. The chalky white cast to her carapace had vanished, her natural violet- brown colors returning

Now, I can't prove definitely that violet carapace corresponds with violet blood, but I have another reason to believe that larkin blood is violet: chasmfiend blood is also violet. Given the descriptions of Chiri-chiri "trumping" I don't think it's a stretch to say that they might be related.

Why am I hung up over the violet blood? Because of what it might imply about which life is native to Roshar. The Listeners have orange blood, and they are the only known native Rosharans. Are all the creatures with violet blood invasive? Are they from the same planet as the Sleepless?

However, I have reasons to believe that creatures with violet blood are native. First of all comes anatomy. Creatures from off-world would not have gemhearts with which they can bond spren. The very fact that they're large crustaceans who require Roshar's higher oxygen level, lighter gravity, and spren bonds to survive seems to indicate that they are native to the planet. In addition, violet blood is found in axehounds, who don't really have any ties to the Larkin or Sleepless as far as I can tell:

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Balat's new pod of pups lay dead in a pool of violet blood on the stone floor

The largest reason I think these creatures are native, however, is coevolution.

Spren bonds on Roshar are a form of mutualistic symbiosis—when organisms of different species interact closely for mutual benefit. The most well-known example of this in our world is pollinating insects. Many of these insects are fairly indiscriminate. European honeybees happily pollinate flowers found in North America, even though those species did not evolve together. The same seems to be true for most of the Mandra on Roshar, who bond with all sorts of creatures from skyeels to chasmfiends to santhids. Some of these creatures did not necessarily need to evolve alongside the Mandra in order to interact with them now. Theoretically, you could drop a brand-new massive creature into Roshar, and if it had a gemheart, these Mandra might be able to bond it.

However, symbiosis can be much, much more specific. There's a lot of bacteria that are specific to the digestive tracts of different animals species, but there's also examples of specific pollinators. Perhaps the coolest is the Darwin's moth:

Look at that tongue! This moth is the result of coevolution, and it can only pollinate a specific flower in the Galapagos. Likewise, the flower can only be pollinated by this moth. Such a specific interaction is a clear indicator that these two species evolved together. In fact, Darwin first predicted the existence of this moth when he examined the flower which it pollinates. The first specimen of the moth wasn't found until years after his death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now let's look at the Larkin. They can't just bond with any Mandras, but with a subspecies found only in Akinah. Chiri-chiri hasn't reached a size yet where the greater potency of the Akinah Mandra should be necessary for her survival. Normal Mandra can hold up chasmfiends, for goodness sake. Instead, by some biological or magical mechanism, I think Chiri-chiri is incapable of bonding other Mandra.

Part of the definition of coevolution is that it must be reciprocal. Both species must be evolving in response to the other. Why would Mandras exist on Roshar which meet the exact needs of the Larkin/Laceryn? How could the Larkin/Laceryn ever exist before these Mandra did, or vice versa? The answer is that they didn't. This was, undoubtedly, coevolution taking place. It is a clear sign that these species are native to Roshar. Either they've lived on Roshar for thousands of generations, or they were created by Adonalsium in this state (in which case they would also be native).

Therefore, I think that the purple-ness of the hordelings is from interbreeding with native Rosharan life. Nikli mentions that their hordelings can breed with the Larkin. And we also know that Adonalsium made species like Humans and Parshendi biologically compatible. Interbreeding like this would likely be the quickest way for the Sleepless to have blended in to Roshar when they first arrived. The weird purple hordelings probably look different from cremlings because they're part-Larkin.

I don't have much of a theory here, I guess. TL;DR: I got hung up over the color of some blood and carapace, but in the end I'm concluding that the Sleepless are the only invasive species and they've blended in by breeding hordelings with native Rosharan life.

EDIT: Well, somehow I wrote this whole thing without realizing there was an extremely pertinent WoB:

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edgwardoe

How much have you thought about the evolution of the biology on Roshar? It seems like the creatures we saw in Dawnshard attacking the crew (sleepless aside, they're a whole other can of cremlings) are basically amphibious chasmfiends? Or some descendent of Larkin? Or even an offshoot of hordelings?

Brandon Sanderson

I imagine there's a lot of aquatic Rosharan megafauna, as many prey species on the planet have literal sources of energy inside of them that (with the right biological adaptations) can be turned into calories. Mix the low gravity, high oxygen, environment--and the possibility for bonding spren for other adaptations--and there's some real fun to be had.

Rosharan Sleepless, as a species who can self-evolve over internal generations, have managed to interbreed with some species of cremlings to come up with specialized hordelings to do some remarkable things.

Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A (Nov. 6, 2020)

I think this generally supports my interpretation, although it doesn't specifically address the origins of the Larkin.

Also this WoB, which is mostly tangential to my theory but is still cool:

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SamsonOption48

They are not native to Roshar and yet they fit among the Rosharan cremlings so perfectly... so was Rosharan fauna based off of another planet? or are the crab species on Roshar invasive and from wherever the sleepless are from? or are only Rosharan sleepless made up of crabs because they melded with the local species? or do living things in the Cosmere evolve into crabs alarmingly often just like in our universe and its a coincidence?

Brandon Sanderson

The ones on other planets will look less like cremlings. Realize that a swarm is always evolving. The first swarms hordelings were more spider-like when it first came to Roshar.

therealdavegreen

The theme of generations is also a thing we see with the Kandra, who can also disguise themselves. Were the Kandra perhaps modeled after the Sleepless? Or is there any relation at all between the two?

Brandon Sanderson

No direct relationship here.

Phantine

Was Aimia originally terraformed to be more like their home ecosystem (just like how Shinovar is like the human home ecosystem)?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO!

Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A (Nov. 6, 2020)

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by Lightspine
Image wasn't working so I used a new one

[+Oltux72]

On 6.11.2020 at 9:11 PM, Lightspine said:

Part of the definition of coevolution is that it must be reciprocal. Both species must be evolving in response to the other. Why would Mandras exist on Roshar which meet the exact needs of the Larkin/Laceryn?

The reasoning is logical, but it contains the unstated assumption that the altered Madaras are native to Roshar's Shadesmar.

On 6.11.2020 at 9:11 PM, Lightspine said:

How could the Larkin/Laceryn ever exist before these Mandra did, or vice versa?

Greatshells would support Madaras. But that does not prove that the coevolution of Lanceryn and Madaras happened on Roshar.
 In fact it is unclear how those gigantic hordelings would walk on land without a Madara.

 

[Lightspine]

10 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

The reasoning is logical, but it contains the unstated assumption that the altered Madaras are native to Roshar's Shadesmar.

Greatshells would support Madaras. But that does not prove that the coevolution of Lanceryn and Madaras happened on Roshar.
 In fact it is unclear how those gigantic hordelings would walk on land without a Madara.

 

This is true! However, spren would have a much harder time leaving their home planets than creatures do, due to Connection. We know that spren on Roshar can't easily worldhop. The same would likely be true for spren on other systems. Therefore, even though it isn't definitive, I think it's highly likely that Mandras are native.

As for the gigantic hordelings, I don't really know. There's a chance that they do have Mandra and we just didn't see them. It's also possible that they survive by spending most of their time underwater, where buoyancy can counteract the strain of gravity. In addition, their body plan is significantly better than that of a Chasmfiend for distributing mass, since they're described as long with many legs (I was imagining a giant centipede). Each leg has to support less weight.

(On the topic of buoyancy, I think that Santhids need Mandras to help them float rather than keep themselves from being crushed by gravity)